Asked if he agreed money alone cannot buy success in football, Alonso, who turns 33 on match-day, said: “Absolutely. Football is not about mathematics. There is not a pre-determined formula, that when you are earning more you are winning more.

“You can try to buy success, but there are big surprises in football. And as well as that, you’ve got to do things properly and normally in football.

Despair: Kompany and City have just two points from four European games (Image: Action Images)

“If you do things properly, you will have success. What happened that year with Liverpool was a really a great surprise.

“We enjoyed it, but it was very different from what is going on Manchester City.

“It’s hard to tell from the outside. You expect that City will make an impact in Europe but so far they haven’t done it.

“But I’m pretty sure they’re not far away from being a big team in Europe, because season by season they are trying to improve.

“It looks like a very serious project to try to compete with the other top clubs in Europe and that is one of their goals.

“Even though the situation is looking ­difficult for them, it might all change in 90 minutes. But we have to do our job against them.”